Kelly Strickland knew she wanted to play golf at a big
college. She just didn’t know she’d have to go to Kansas to do it.

The South Forsyth rising senior verbally committed Sunday to
the University of Kansas, a program and school that fulfilled Strickland’s
goal: the Big 12 member enrolls over 28,000 students at its Lawrence, Kansas
campus.

Strickland would join a Kansas program looking for a boost.
The Jayhawks placed seventh out of nine teams at the Big 12 Championships this
past season.

Strickland could help. She helped the War Eagles place
second at the Area 3-6A championships and fourth in Class 7A at the GHSA State
Golf Championships with a top-10 individual finish.

Before all that, Strickland was almost sold on committing to
Kansas after taking an unofficial visit in February. She saw the campus’ golf
course and it’s private indoor hitting facility for the golf program. She saw
the team’s schedule for upcoming seasons to play tournaments in Arizona and New
Orleans and Dallas.

But watching a men’s basketball game at Kansas’s famed Allen
Fieldhouse made the biggest impression.

“My parents didn't go to big college, so that was the first
thing that I got to experience of being (at a big college), and I really liked
to the whole town and the atmosphere of the basketball game. It was so fun,”
Strickland said.

Still, Kansas’ coaches had not seen Strickland play, so she
didn’t yet have an official scholarship offer. Strickland remedied that in
early June. She got accepted to play in an AJGA event on the Jayhawks’ home
course, along with a few other Kansas recruits. Strickland didn’t play her
best, she said, but well enough, she thought. Kansas did, too; they offered her
before she left.

Strickland had manufactured all this in the first place. College
golf recruiting, along with other non-revenue sports, requires initiation on
the high school student’s part. Strickland began each summer by emailing
coaches at colleges of all sizes, just to be safe, but hoping to produce
interest from those at the biggest ones, even if they were outside of the
Southeast.